La-de-da, doesn't that pillow look so cute?! Yes, it IS very cute. But man alive! It was one of the MOST DIFFICULT projects I have ever attempted!
I'm learning how to quilt, right, and I keep coming across all of these wonderful new quilt blocks that I want to try. I had said before that I hadn't yet met a quilt block I didn't like. WELL I DON'T LIKE PAPER PIECING! Paper piecing is a type of quilting where you use actual paper as a pattern, and you sew directly onto the paper, with the fabric underneath, and then when you're all done you rip away the paper. It seemed kinda easy. Or so I thought.
I used a light box to help line up the pieces. It's way too hard to see in this photo, but basically you build up the quilt block by aligning the pieces on the bottom of the paper with the right side facing up and after you sew on the lines you iron the fabric back so it creates the design, then you cut off the access. See? Told you, mind melting.
My inspiration to try paper piecing was a tutorial I came across on the Chasing Cottons blog - you can find it here if you're so inclined to try paper piecing, aka melting your brain in half. The pattern is called Circle of Geese. The triangles are the 'geese.'
I picked out fabrics that looked quite similar to the inspiration piece and in the end my piece did come out exactly how it was supposed to. Getting to that point was beyond frustrating.
The completed block takes four circle of geese blocks. I was all finished with my blocks and then I discovered that I had accidentally flipped two pieces. Where I'm pointing and the piece to the left of it is flipped. Grrrrrr. I also discovered that I had a gap in one of the other pieces, so that piece had to be redone because when it was sewn together there would have been a hole.
What is most difficult about paper piecing is that because you are building the piece from the back, you are essentially lining it up the opposite way it is supposed to go, then flipping it over. You have to make sure that your fabric piece is big enough to fit the entire pattern section that you're creating. Many times my pieces were not big enough, so I had to start completely over. I said many curse words.
And the trash! I made so much trash with this project! Seriously! So much waste because I had to keep starting over. Gasaagbarnrabdlgnbgrlajg!!! expletive expletive curse word cuss cuss!
In the end, it all came out perfectly. After a multitude of attempts, my blocks were exact. I made it into a pillow for my Mom for Mother's Day. I should mention that I {stupidly} began this project at 8 p.m. the day before Mother's Day. After many hours of work I didn't finish it in time to give it to her on Mother's Day but she got it three days later and of course she loved it.
I'm happy with the end result - I think the pattern is pretty cool. But I will NOT be attempting paper piecing again any time soon. I think the only way I'd attempt it again is if I had a block of five hours where I had zero distractions and zero deadlines and I could concentrate completely and fully. This is the type of project that requires 200% concentration. I had to literally think through every.single.little.action with this project.
I'm going to stick with the traditional block-making way of making quilts! {And of course I'm sticking with making my hexagon pieces too, because those are a different and oh so simple method of paper piecing. It's not even in the same category because it's happy and simple and serene and I do not say expletives when I'm working with my hexagons!!}
